Colon Cancer News and Research

Latest Colon Cancer News and Research

Gene mutations cause 85 percent of colon cancers

Mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor gene have been found to cause 85 percent of colon cancers.

9 Sep 2004

Men's magazines don’t inform men about prostate and colon cancer screening

Decisions about screening for prostate and colon cancer require patients to have accurate, balanced information. Unfortunately, men are not getting this information from popular men’s magazines.

8 Sep 2004

CT scans may be delivering as much radiation as a low-dose atomic bomb

Those full-body CT scans advertised at some health care centers may be delivering as much radiation as a low-dose atomic bomb, according to a new study. And that means people who get them could be raising their cancer risk, researchers from Columbia University report in the journal Radiology (Vol. 232, No. 3:735-738).

5 Sep 2004

New colon cancer guidelines

The American Society of Clinical Oncology has developed a set of recommendations to address whether patients who have had successful surgery for Stage II colon cancer should be offered adjuvant chemotherapy in routine clinical practice.

17 Aug 2004

Physicians today perform more colonoscopies than necessary

A colonoscopy allows a physician look inside the entire large intestine, from the lowest part, the rectum, all the way up through the colon to the lower end of the small intestine.

16 Aug 2004

Unique dual laparoscopic surgical procedure

The skill and teamwork of two physicians at Scripps Clinic, combined with the expertise of the surgical staff at Scripps Green Hospital, recently led to a unique surgery that changed the life of a local woman.

21 Jul 2004

How DNA repair machinery detects and corrects errors in DNA replication

Biochemists at Duke University Medical Center have discovered key components that enable the cell's DNA repair machinery to adeptly launch its action in either direction along a DNA strand to strip out faulty DNA.

2 Jul 2004

Four most common cancers accounted for over half of the 225,000 new cases of malignant cancer registered in England in 2001

The four most common cancers - breast, lung, colorectal and prostate - accounted for over half of the 225,000 new cases of malignant cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) registered in England in 2001.

30 Jun 2004

Catalogue of the 30,000 or so genes that contain the instructions to make a human or a mouse

With genomic sequencing at The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and other centres, researchers now have an extensive catalogue of the 30,000 or so genes that contain the instructions to make a human or a mouse.

24 Jun 2004

Calcium supplements can decrease the risk of all types of colorectal polyps

While taking calcium supplements can decrease the risk of all types of colorectal polyps, research led by Dartmouth Medical School shows calcium had the greatest effect on advanced colorectal adenomas, considered to be most strongly associated with invasive colorectal cancer.

15 Jun 2004

Non-aspirin pain drugs may help men with recurrent prostate cancer

Early results from a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine study may determine if drugs called Cox-2 inhibitors, a newer type of non-aspirin pain medicine now widely prescribed for arthritis symptoms, may benefit men with recurrent prostate cancer.

10 Jun 2004

Diabetics could be up to three times more likely to get bowel cancer

People with diabetes could be up to three times more likely to get bowel cancer – according to a report from Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council published*(1) today.

5 Jun 2004

People with diabetes could be up to three times more likely to get bowel cancer

Scientists tested a marker of the sugar levels in blood samples*(2) taken from almost 10,000 men and women aged between 45-79 and then checked their medical condition six years later.

5 Jun 2004

Pipe smoking as dangerous as cigar smoking

An American Cancer Society study finds pipe smoking confers a similar risk of cancer and other disease as cigar smoking. The study, the largest and most precise to date of the risks of pipe smoking, appears in the June 2 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

2 Jun 2004

There are still benefits from hormone therapy after menopause

Despite the highly publicized closing of the Women’s Health Initiative study, the scientific community should not rule out that women may benefit from hormone therapy after menopause, say researchers at UC Davis, Duke and Harvard Universities.

31 May 2004

African-Americans more likely to die of colon cancer

African-Americans with colon cancer are more than 50 percent more likely to die of their cancer within five and ten years after surgery than Caucasians. According to a new study published May 24, 2004 in the online edition of CANCER.

24 May 2004

Tumour suppressor gene family may be key to new colon cancer drugs

In the hunt for new cancer drug targets, scientists from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have discovered mutations in a family of genes linked to more than a quarter of colon cancers, as well as several other common cancers including breast and lung.

20 May 2004

Studies identify risk factors for colon cancer in women

In new studies presented today at Digestive Disease Week in New Orleans, scientists report that women’s preferences for a female physician may delay or prevent proper colorectal screenings due to a lack of females in the field and diabetes may be a significant risk factor for development of colon cancer.

19 May 2004

Genetically engineered viruses may create new class of cancer therapies

A genetically engineered virus can selectively kill cancerous cells in the lung and colon while leaving healthy cells intact, according to new research published today in Cancer Research by William Wold and colleagues at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

15 May 2004

Women are not checking for colon cancer

Many women who regularly get checked for breast cancer and cervical cancer still don’t go for a test that could save them from another big killer -- colon cancer – according to new University of Michigan research. But perhaps their mammogram and Pap smear appointments could be used as “teachable moments” to help prompt them to get their colons checked, the researchers suggest.

15 May 2004